Looking forward to 2015

Many will use the last month of this year to summerise the year that passed. There will be lists of the best of 2014, best books included. I decided to do something with a more forward look in mind. I decided to conclude this year of Western Balkan books in translation with offering my view on the best in Western Balkans literature for children and young adults. These are my recomndations for books that should get their translations into English.

I will start with my all time childhood favourites:

1. Пријателите Бон и Бона [My Friends Ken and Dee] by Olivera Nikolova (1974). A little lonely girl gets two new friends when her candy suddenly transforms into two  funny looking and advantourous little people who could fit in her pocket.

2. Самовилското коњче [The Fairie Horse] by Dushko Nanevski (1978). This book is a collection of contemporary retellings of some of the most loved Macedonian folk tales.

There are some contemporary authors and books that take the folklore as the inspiration for their works of fantasy:

3. Deca Bestragije [Bestragia Children] by Uroš Petrović (2013).  A beautifuly narrated novel packed with adventure based on Serbian mytology. "In those days the Balkan was a bleak windy land. Borders were wild, fragile and porous, and all kinds of human and non-human beeings were wondering through the secretive paths of the pictouresque peninsula, spreading around the seeds of all sorts of curses and miracles ..."

4. Sjeverozapadni vjetar [The Tales of the Wind] by Zdenko Bašić (2011). Another fairly new fantasy book of fairies and other mitical forest dwellers from the Croatian regions of Medvednica and Samoborsko gorje. The author of the stories is even more famous as an illustrator, and he promises we will soom see these stories in a movie format as well.

And last but not least, maybe not for children, but more for young adults, a book am attempting to translate into English, still looking for a publisher interested to take on this project:

5. Невестата на змејот [The Dragon's Bride] by Vlada Urošević (2008). Based in the Macedonian folklore, this is a tale of the travels between the worlds of Low-land and High-land, a quest of a brother to find his lost sister, who is said to have been kidnapped by the dragon.

And the secret is out - I love a good fantasy adventure :)

Stories of Old

Folklore and folklore scholarsip has been see as one of the ways to promote and develop national identities in the new independent states. They are also a link between the diaspora and their native culture. Thus many of the books on this blog happen to be translatios of folk tales.

Some Great Old Stories From the Old Country is a small book, only 35 pages, published in 2006 by Nettle Hollow.  The stories in this book are old stories from the oral folk tradition of Macedonia. They are fun to share with both young and old. 

The translator and illustrator is Michael Seraphinoff, is a scholar with degrees in anthropology and an M.A. in Slavic linguistics. In addition to this latest publication, Seraphinoff has written some academic books and papers, and has translated Silyan the Stork. 

You can buy this book from the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society and Amazon. 

Children's Novels

The project of the Macedonian Government for translating "130 volumes of Macedonian Literature" into English has finished and the books have been distributed to major National Libraries throughout the world. I had the pleasure of translating the Anthology of Children's Short Stories, edited by Petre Dimovski. There are three more books for children in the whole Project: two books of children's novels and one anthology of children's poetry. 

Children's Novels 1

Children's Novels 2

The cover was created by Kočo Fidanovski.



In this post I will present the two books of novels. The editor of Children's Novels is Svetlana Hristova Jocikj and the translators are Aleksandra Koceva and Marija Dimovska.

Check out if the library near you can provide these books and here is a quick link to the Library of Congress.


The books include pieces by authors:

The magic saddle / Vančo Nikoleski ; 
Bojan / Gligor Popovski ; 
Milosija / Kata Misirkova-Rumenova ; 
The white gyrsy boy / Vidoe Podgorec
Big and small / Boško Smaḱoski ; 
Salad days / Velko Nedelkovski ; 
Marta / Gorjan Petrevski ; 
The girl with two names / Jadranka Vladova ; 
The monastery bells / Kiro Donev

Even more folk tales

If you liked Tales from Long Ago here is one more book of fairytales from Croatia. Published in 2011 by Leykam International Zagreb, this book contains eleven folktales selected and adapted by Sanja Lovrenćič. The stories have been translated in English by Karen Butler, and the book is illustrated by Ivana Guljašević.

The book includes the following tales:
The cat and the fox
And the third son was a real bandit
The glutton
How a soldier became king
The rabbit, the bear, the man, and the fox
The servant changed the master
The rooster's company
The young man and the devil emperor
The little frog girl
The bridman and the black crow
The little fairy

If you want to check this book it's available from the Balkan Bookshop.

Life Wisdom from Croatia

graphic novel adaptation illustrated by Mate Lovrić, in Croatian, Alfa, 2013

The Wild Horse (2006) by the Croatian writer Božidar Prosenjak has been compared with The Little Prince and Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. This novel was published for the first time in Croatian in 1989 and has since had numerous editions is Croatia, winning two of the most distinguished state awards: "Ivana Brlić Mažuranić" in 1989 and "Grigor Vitez" in 1989. It was received warmly by both the public and critics and entered school textbooks and required reading lists. In around 240 pages the author tells a story about a noble animal that learns true values. It a story about growing up and overcoming problems in life. The translation in English was done by Laura Gudim. For your copy of the book you can check with the publisher Academia Cravatica.

E-books for all ages

My latest discovery is this wonderful e-book publisher of translations for children by authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Style Writers Now. The translations are mostly in English, with some are in Spanish and in German. There are more than 20 authors, and about 50 books you can get for just 1 to 3 US$. Most are picture books, but there are collections of short stories and novels. My personal favourite is Sirenoteka Fairy Tales and Rujana.

The driving force of the publisher is Marija F. Sullivan, who is also one of the authors and translator of some of the stories. Her book The Mermaid's Dream has first been published in Singapore (1995) and then in Sarajevo (2003). Adrian Mitchel compared this collection of original children’s stories to Andersen’s fairy tales. You can download a copy for free and play with the lovely little Mermaids.

You can also find Marija's books in paperback on amazon

Celebrating Spring

Another book from Montenegro comes from the editor of the anthology of short stories for children by Montenegrin authors. But this time it is a bilingual book of short stories by Dushan Djurishic as an author himself. The book was translated into English by Dragan M. Vugdelić, and illustrated by Abdulah Kozić. It was published in Podgorica by the Association of Literary Translators of Montenegro in 2008.

Dushan Djurishic (Dušan Đurišić) is one of the most prominent Montenegrin authors for children. He has received many awards and in 2010 he has been shortlisted for the Little Prince Award. His poems and short stories have been translated in about forty languages.

The book can be found at several libraries in Podgorica.

The book and the movie

After the big success of Igor Kolarov's novel Agi and Emma (2002), it was adapted for the big screen (2007) by director Milutin Petrovic. The novel tells the story about the strange, yet beautiful friendship between Agi and Emma. Agi is a 9-year-old boy, who lives in a modern family, with parents who are always busy and who move around very often. His life changes when he meets Emma, an elderly but very lively women. Ema is his only friend. Together, they create their own world, a world of friendship, imagination and creativity, full of all kinds of interesting mischief.

While teh movie was still in the making, the Serbian Company Limited from Toronto published the English translation (2006) by Irina Sutulov, with a foreword by Milutin Petrovic.

After reading the book, you can also enjoy the movie on a DVD with English subtitles

Petrlik Huseinović in Japan

         

Although my goal here is to collect English translations of Western Balkan literature for children, my recent trip to Japan inspired me to write this short post. While in Tokyo I visited the Chichiro Art Museum, dedicated to Chichiro Iwasaki, Japanese illustrator and author for children. The Museum also contains a collection of world renown illustrators for children. Among them are the works of the Croatian illustrator Andrea Petrlik Huseinović. She was awarded the Grand Prix OBI in 2004 at the Oita Biennial of Illustrations for her picture book Ciconia Ciconia, which was published in Japanese translation by Yoshie Okada in 2009.

Winter reading

The holidays are over and I am back with another wonderful collection of fairy tales. I don't know about you, but for me winter is always about snuggling up in cozy chair, soft blanket and a fairy tale book. So here it is a book of Serbian Fairy Tales published in 2013 by Flying Fish Publications. The collection contains 20 stories, selected and translated by Jelena Ćurčić, edited by Sam Quinn and featuring illustrations by Rosanna Morris. It is part of a larger project  supported by Arts Council England and Serbian Council of Great Britain.

Here is part of the description offered on their internet site: "Serbian fairy tales were first compiled in 1821 by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, 'father of the study of Serbian folklore', who was a collaborator, friend and a well-known contemporary of Brothers Grimm and Goethe...The book also contains a wealth of information about the origin of the tales, about Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Serbian folk lore and mythology and Serbian language, shining a light on the material previously not available in the UK."

And this is part of a review published on amazon by a reader: "the translation is easy to read, which makes the decision to leave key elements of Serbian folklore untranslated (Vila, and Zmaj, and Azdaja, and even Tzar) a gentle reminder that these are not English fairy tales, after all!"